How To Use Playing Cards to Teach Kindergartners Math
Games are a great way to make your home a place where learning math is fun. The experts at ABCmouse developed a concept known as the Four C’s to help you teach your child math in a way that is easy and accessible. Here you can learn the Four C’s by playing a fun card game with your child.
The Four “C’s” are:
- Count
- Compare
- Categorize
- Converse
The Card Collector Game Makes Learning Math Fun
Families can use the game “Card Collector” to stretch your child’s math abilities and make learning fun. You may recognize the rule from games you played as a child.
- First deal out five number cards of the same suit to each player.
- Hold your cards face down, and on the count of three, flip over the top card.
- Now players can compare cards. Ask your child, “How are the cards different?” Encourage your child to count the hearts, diamonds, or whatever suit is on the card, and whoever has the most, gets to collect the cards from that round.
- At the end of the game, players count their cards to see who collected the most. The player with the most is the winner.
Advanced learners may be able to recognize the number on the card, without counting the suit symbols, to see who has the higher number card, but you can continue to strengthen your child’s math skills by encouraging them to count even when they know the number by sight.
Once you’ve mastered Card Collector, you can progress by using all the suits in the card deck and categorizing them by asking players to sort the cards by suit or color. Play the game, and then for a fun bonus round, draw a leftover card from the deck and whoever collected the most cards of that suit or color, wins the bonus round.
Expert Advice To Make the Most of The Game
“Now don’t forget to talk,” says ABCmouse curriculum expert Nika Fabienke Ed.D. “Converse. You got to talk about what’s happening, and use math terms.” An example that Nika suggests is, “Hey, you win this round, your card has ONE MORE heart than mine.”
Solidifying your child’s use of the Four C’s now can help set them up for years of success, even with more complex math concepts like algebra and fractions. Of course, you can also check out the ABCmouse app for fun games and skill-building activities like this one.